Solange Knowles tells magazine ‘don’t touch my hair’

Solange Knowles has told a magazine “don’t touch my hair”- after it appeared to digitally remove some of her braids on its front cover. The singer’s elaborate hairstyle seems to have been altered on the front of the Evening Standard Magazine. Solange posted an original version of the image on Instagram, with the caption “dtmh (don’t touch my hair) @eveningstandardmagazine”. The Evening Standard has been contacted for comment.

A post shared by Solange (@saintrecords) on Oct 19, 2017 at 9:25am PDT

Don’t Touch My Hair is a song from Solange’s album A Seat at the Table. In an interview last year, she explained how she believes hair is “incredibly spiritual, and, energetically, it really encompasses and expresses who we are”. “The song is as much as what it feels like to have your whole identity challenged on a daily basis, although physically touching the hair is extremely problematic!” In a series of Instagram stories – which only last for 24 hours – Solange elaborated on the Evening Standard front cover controversy. In the first screenshot, she highlights where the braids should have been by circling an area above her head. Solange instagram post She then posted parts of the interview where she is quoted as saying that braiding is an “act of beauty, an act of convenience and an act of tradition – its own art form”. Solange went on to share several previous designs by one of the hairstylist responsible, Joanne Petit-Frére. The Evening Standard shared the front cover image on their Instagram page, along with another photo which shows more of the hairstyle. Additionally, in a series of tweets, the journalist who interviewed Solange has also criticised the magazine for the article. She told her followers she was “publicly disowning” the piece as it was a “fiasco despite my efforts”. “I told my editors to take my name off of the byline because they distorted my work and reporting in ways that made me very uncomfortable.”